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Pedestrians in a crosswalk near South Station in Boston.A woman in a wheelchair and her service dog traveling on a city sidewalk.Cars traveling around a rotary/roundabout.People sitting at an outdoor café on Newbury Street in Boston.A wheelchair user boarding a trolley in Portland, Oregon.A woman and her service dog at a crosswalk with detectable warnings in San Francisco.

Home | Project Report | Essential Federal Resources | Literature Review

Literature Review

The most important guidance and reference materials for accessible pedestrian design can be found in the tab Essential Federal Resources. The Literature Review contains information on approximately 150 resources (including publications, textbooks, reports, articles, web sites and others) that have been gathered from a broad cross-section of sources. Please see the Method section of the Project Report for a description of the process and the priorities for selection. The intent of this project was:

"To produce a comprehensive, organized, annotated description and analysis of current materials addressing the training of practitioners and the creation of, design and maintenance of accessible pedestrian environments using as a starting point the elements prescribed in the US Access Board guidelines to reveal gaps in the current body of knowledge that will enable ESPA and others to focus future activities."

The analysis revealed substantial gaps between the excellent available resources on accessible pedestrian design (see Essential Federal Resources) and the reference, training and research materials that comprise the current literature on pedestrian design. As revealed in the search categories below, the usefulness of the materials, measured against current quality guidance on accessible pedestrian environments, is the basis of organizing the materials. Some elements are excellent. Some are examples of common reference materials that missed opportunities to integrate state-of-the-art guidance on accessible pedestrian environments. The choice to include material that is of 'limited usefulness' was based upon the availability and visibility of these sources in the field. It was important to place them in the context of high quality, reliable guidance. The goal was also to reduce the likelihood that a reader would discover them independently and presume the validity of the guidance.

Please note: Some of the resources listed in this section are available as PDF files. In order to view PDFs you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you do not have this software installed, you can download Acrobat Reader This link will open a new browser window. for free on Adobe's web site.

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